Entertainment films are like drugs: Jahnu Barua

New Delhi: Award winning film maker Jahnu Barua says that entertainment films are audio-visual drugs for the audience and are mere addiction, they deliver nothing."After watching a film, one should go home with a thought, a message engraved on the mind. Entertainment films make you laugh with no reason behind it. They do not have a message to carry home, they are like drugs-they are purely an addiction," says the filmmaker.

Barua is better known for his critically acclaimed film `Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara` starring Anupam Kher and Urmila Matondkar. "The way the industry approach is moving toward senseless comedy, the films are losing objective. They have the responsibility to portray a larger picture, not mere laughters on the big screen," adds Barua who is also known for his films on environmental issues. The 55-year-old Assamese director, a product of FTII, Pune got the national award for his unreleased work `Bonani` which deals with the subject of afforestation. The 2003 Padma Shree awardee got recognition through his third film "Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai" (The Catastrophe) that won the National Award for the Best Film in 1988 and eight international awards. Barua feels that these days the directors have restricted their work keeping in mind the multiplex audience. The cinema has attained a biased character. "Cinema should equally be beneficial for village as well as multiplex audience. The filmmakers should not make films to suit the tastes of the multiplex audience," says Barua who was in the capital to judge films for an environmental film fest to be held in October. "The multiplex audience has in a way sectionalised its tastes. They resent social subjects and find comfort in meaningless love stories," adds Barua. Love story based movies according the director have not yet recognised the way to portray pious emotion on the big screen. "Love is not about hero and heroines singing songs in hilly areas or roaming around in the fields. There is much to it. The emotion needs to be dealt with seriously," says Barua. Talking about linguistic films, the filmmaker says he feels that regionalism in the country keeps you devoid of some great pieces of art. "An Assamese would never watch a Gujarati film or vise-versa. This regionalism is a great barrier in terms of communicating to the larger audience. It is the government`s role to bridge the gap and put forth some of the amazing works before the masses," says the director. Bureau Report